Browsing by Author "Gupta, Saumya"
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Item Data supporting "Informational Masking Constrains Vocal Communication in Nonhuman Animals"(2023-01-09) Gupta, Saumya; Kalra, Lata; Rose, Gary J; Bee, Mark A; gupta333@umn.edu; Gupta, SaumyaNoisy social environments constrain human speech communication in two important ways: spectrotemporal overlap between signals and noise can reduce speech audibility (“energetic masking”) and noise can also interfere with processing the informative features of otherwise audible speech (“informational masking”). To date, informational masking has not been investigated in studies of vocal communication in nonhuman animals, even though many animals make evolutionarily consequential decisions that depend on processing vocal information in noisy social environments. In this study of a treefrog, in which females choose mates in noisy breeding choruses, we investigated whether informational masking disrupts the processing of vocal information in the contexts of species recognition and sexual selection. The associated data for this work is being released prior to the publication of the manuscript for peer review.Item Data supporting "Neural Basis of Acoustic Species Recognition in a Cryptic Species Complex"(2021-08-14) Gupta, Saumya; Alluri, Rishi K; Rose, Gary J; Bee, Mark A; gupta333@umn.edu; Gupta, Saumya; University of Minnesota Animal Communication LabSexual traits that promote species recognition are important drivers of reproductive isolation, especially among closely related species. Identifying neural processes that shape species differences in recognition is crucial for understanding the causal mechanisms of reproductive isolation. Temporal patterns are salient features of sexual signals that are widely used in species recognition by several taxa, including anurans. Recent advances in our understanding of temporal processing by the anuran auditory system provide an excellent opportunity to investigate the neural basis of species-specific recognition. The anuran inferior colliculus (IC) consists of neurons that are selective for temporal features of calls. Of potential relevance are auditory neurons known as interval-counting neurons (ICNs) that are often selective for the pulse rate of conspecific advertisement calls. Here, we took advantage of a species differences in temporal selectivity for pulsatile advertisement calls exhibited by two cryptic species of gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis and Hyla versicolor) to test the hypothesis that ICNs mediate acoustic species recognition. We tested this hypothesis by examining the extent to which the threshold number of pulses required to elicit behavioral responses from females and neural responses from ICNs was similar within each species but potentially different between the two species. The associated data for this work is being released prior to submission of the manuscript for peer review.Item Data Supporting “Studying mate preferences using inertial measurement units: A validation study with treefrogs”(2023-01-09) Gupta, Saumya; Bee, Mark A; gupta333@umn.edu; Gupta, SaumyaInvestigations of mate choice continue to address fundamental questions about the mechanisms and evolution of animal behaviour. A common behavioural assay used to study acoustically guided mate choice with playback experiments is phonotaxis, a typically robust response in which a chooser approaches a sound source broadcasting acoustic signals, such as courtship songs or mating calls. Robust empirical studies of phonotaxis often require substantial laboratory facilities, such as a dedicated and sound-treated room or enclosure, in which the acoustic environment is controlled and in which animals are freely able to move about. The financial and space resources required to outfit a research laboratory to investigate phonotaxis may be sufficiently prohibitive such that some researchers are excluded from undertaking bioacoustic behavioural research. Here, we validate a new device designed to measure animal movements related to phonotaxis behaviour using an inertial measurement unit (IMU). The device is small and portable; it can be constructed for less than $300 US dollars; and the build instructions and code for operation are freely available (Gupta et al., 2020, HardwareX, 8, e00116). In a series of four experiments with treefrogs, we demonstrate using the device that an IMU-based approach to measuring animal movement can replicate a broad range of findings from traditional phonotaxis experiments on species recognition and sexual selection. We conclude by discussing several possible uses for IMU-based measurements of phonotaxis.Item Information Processing in Complex Environments: Insights from Treefrog Communication(2021-12) Gupta, SaumyaMany animals use sounds to perform critical biological functions, such as choosing a mate or evading a predator, in environments where multiple sound sources are simultaneously active. Discerning a sound of interest in such complex acoustic environments, however, is not a trivial task. It requires animals to perceptually organize mixtures of auditory input into meaningful information about their external environment. In this dissertation research, my broad aim was to understand how animals parse their complex acoustic environments to perform acoustically guided behaviors. Using Cope’s gray treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) as a model system, I investigated how animals accomplish the different perceptual tasks that are required for recognizing and responding to a signal of interest in noisy social environments. I discovered some of the processes that act together to extract information and facilitate signal recognition. Specifically, I found a perceptual mechanism that allows animals to perceive the different vocal signals in their environment as distinct sounds. I also found specific neural adaptations that allow them to extract and recognize biologically meaningful information from their vocal signals. Additionally, my research reveals that despite the evolution of these perceptual and sensorineural mechanisms, background sounds present in the social environment can interfere with the information processing capacity of animals, and thus, can critically constrain their ability to perform important biological functions. This research opens up an exciting and unknown question of how animals are evolutionarily adapted to overcome the limitations in information processing to perform acoustically guided behaviors.